Balance

API reference for Balance endpoints and webhooks

Verify real-time account balances and assess the risk of insufficient balance ACH returns. For how-to guidance, see the Balance documentation.

Endpoints
/accounts/balance/getFetch real-time balances
/signal/evaluateFetch real-time balances and assess a proposed transaction for ACH return risk

Endpoints

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/accounts/balance/get

Retrieve real-time balance data

The /accounts/balance/get endpoint returns the real-time balance for each of an Item's accounts. While other endpoints, such as /accounts/get, return a balance object, /accounts/balance/get forces the available and current balance fields to be refreshed rather than cached. This endpoint can be used for existing Items that were added via any of Plaid’s other products. This endpoint can be used as long as Link has been initialized with any other product, balance itself is not a product that can be used to initialize Link. As this endpoint triggers a synchronous request for fresh data, latency may be higher than for other Plaid endpoints (typically less than 10 seconds, but occasionally up to 30 seconds or more); if you encounter errors, you may find it necessary to adjust your timeout period when making requests.
Note: If you are getting real-time balance for the purpose of assessing the return risk of a proposed ACH transaction, it is recommended to use /signal/evaluate instead of /accounts/balance/get. /signal/evaluate returns the same real-time balance information and also provides access to Signal Rules, which provides no-code transaction business logic configuration, backtesting and recommendations for tuning your transaction acceptance logic, and the ability to easily switch between Balance and Signal Transaction Scores as needed for ultra-low-latency, ML-powered risk assessments. For more details, see the Balance documentation.

/accounts/balance/get

Request fields

access_token
requiredstringrequired, string
The access token associated with the Item data is being requested for.
secret
stringstring
Your Plaid API secret. The secret is required and may be provided either in the PLAID-SECRET header or as part of a request body.
client_id
stringstring
Your Plaid API client_id. The client_id is required and may be provided either in the PLAID-CLIENT-ID header or as part of a request body.
options
objectobject
Optional parameters to /accounts/balance/get.
account_ids
[string][string]
A list of account_ids to retrieve for the Item. The default value is null.
Note: An error will be returned if a provided account_id is not associated with the Item.
min_last_updated_datetime
stringstring
Timestamp in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ) indicating the oldest acceptable balance when making a request to /accounts/balance/get.
This field is only necessary when the institution is ins_128026 (Capital One), and one or more account types being requested is a non-depository account (such as a credit card) as Capital One does not provide real-time balance for non-depository accounts. In this case, a value must be provided or an INVALID_REQUEST error with the code of INVALID_FIELD will be returned. For all other institutions, as well as for depository accounts at Capital One (including all checking and savings accounts) this field is ignored and real-time balance information will be fetched.
If this field is not ignored, and no acceptable balance is available, an INVALID_RESULT error with the code LAST_UPDATED_DATETIME_OUT_OF_RANGE will be returned.

Format: date-time 
1// Pull real-time balance information for each account associated
2// with the Item
3const request: AccountsGetRequest = {
4  access_token: accessToken,
5};
6try {
7  const response = await plaidClient.accountsBalanceGet(request);
8  const accounts = response.data.accounts;
9} catch (error) {
10  // handle error
11}
/accounts/balance/get

Response fields

accounts
[object][object]
An array of financial institution accounts associated with the Item. If /accounts/balance/get was called, each account will include real-time balance information.
account_id
stringstring
Plaid’s unique identifier for the account. This value will not change unless Plaid can't reconcile the account with the data returned by the financial institution. This may occur, for example, when the name of the account changes. If this happens a new account_id will be assigned to the account.
The account_id can also change if the access_token is deleted and the same credentials that were used to generate that access_token are used to generate a new access_token on a later date. In that case, the new account_id will be different from the old account_id.
If an account with a specific account_id disappears instead of changing, the account is likely closed. Closed accounts are not returned by the Plaid API.
When using a CRA endpoint (an endpoint associated with Plaid Check Consumer Report, i.e. any endpoint beginning with /cra/), the account_id returned will not match the account_id returned by a non-CRA endpoint.
Like all Plaid identifiers, the account_id is case sensitive.
balances
objectobject
A set of fields describing the balance for an account. Balance information may be cached unless the balance object was returned by /accounts/balance/get or /signal/evaluate (using a Balance-only ruleset).
available
nullablenumbernullable, number
The amount of funds available to be withdrawn from the account, as determined by the financial institution.
For credit-type accounts, the available balance typically equals the limit less the current balance, less any pending outflows plus any pending inflows.
For depository-type accounts, the available balance typically equals the current balance less any pending outflows plus any pending inflows. For depository-type accounts, the available balance does not include the overdraft limit.
For investment-type accounts (or brokerage-type accounts for API versions 2018-05-22 and earlier), the available balance is the total cash available to withdraw as presented by the institution.
Note that not all institutions calculate the available balance. In the event that available balance is unavailable, Plaid will return an available balance value of null.
Available balance may be cached and is not guaranteed to be up-to-date in realtime unless the value was returned by /accounts/balance/get, or by /signal/evaluate with a Balance-only ruleset.
If current is null this field is guaranteed not to be null.

Format: double
current
nullablenumbernullable, number
The total amount of funds in or owed by the account.
For credit-type accounts, a positive balance indicates the amount owed; a negative amount indicates the lender owing the account holder.
For loan-type accounts, the current balance is the principal remaining on the loan, except in the case of student loan accounts at Sallie Mae (ins_116944). For Sallie Mae student loans, the account's balance includes both principal and any outstanding interest. Similar to credit-type accounts, a positive balance is typically expected, while a negative amount indicates the lender owing the account holder.
For investment-type accounts (or brokerage-type accounts for API versions 2018-05-22 and earlier), the current balance is the total value of assets as presented by the institution.
Note that balance information may be cached unless the value was returned by /accounts/balance/get or by /signal/evaluate with a Balance-only ruleset; if the Item is enabled for Transactions, the balance will be at least as recent as the most recent Transaction update. If you require realtime balance information, use the available balance as provided by /accounts/balance/get or /signal/evaluate called with a Balance-only ruleset_key.
When returned by /accounts/balance/get, this field may be null. When this happens, available is guaranteed not to be null.

Format: double
limit
nullablenumbernullable, number
For credit-type accounts, this represents the credit limit.
For depository-type accounts, this represents the pre-arranged overdraft limit, which is common for current (checking) accounts in Europe.
In North America, this field is typically only available for credit-type accounts.

Format: double
iso_currency_code
nullablestringnullable, string
The ISO-4217 currency code of the balance. Always null if unofficial_currency_code is non-null.
unofficial_currency_code
nullablestringnullable, string
The unofficial currency code associated with the balance. Always null if iso_currency_code is non-null. Unofficial currency codes are used for currencies that do not have official ISO currency codes, such as cryptocurrencies and the currencies of certain countries.
See the currency code schema for a full listing of supported unofficial_currency_codes.
last_updated_datetime
nullablestringnullable, string
Timestamp in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ssZ) indicating the last time the balance was updated.
This field is returned only when the institution is ins_128026 (Capital One).

Format: date-time
mask
nullablestringnullable, string
The last 2-4 alphanumeric characters of either the account’s displayed mask or the account’s official account number. Note that the mask may be non-unique between an Item’s accounts.
name
stringstring
The name of the account, either assigned by the user or by the financial institution itself
official_name
nullablestringnullable, string
The official name of the account as given by the financial institution
type
stringstring
investment: Investment account. In API versions 2018-05-22 and earlier, this type is called brokerage instead.
credit: Credit card
depository: Depository account
loan: Loan account
other: Non-specified account type
See the Account type schema for a full listing of account types and corresponding subtypes.

Possible values: investment, credit, depository, loan, brokerage, other
subtype
nullablestringnullable, string
See the Account type schema for a full listing of account types and corresponding subtypes.

Possible values: 401a, 401k, 403B, 457b, 529, auto, brokerage, business, cash isa, cash management, cd, checking, commercial, construction, consumer, credit card, crypto exchange, ebt, education savings account, fixed annuity, gic, health reimbursement arrangement, home equity, hsa, isa, ira, keogh, lif, life insurance, line of credit, lira, loan, lrif, lrsp, money market, mortgage, mutual fund, non-custodial wallet, non-taxable brokerage account, other, other insurance, other annuity, overdraft, paypal, payroll, pension, prepaid, prif, profit sharing plan, rdsp, resp, retirement, rlif, roth, roth 401k, rrif, rrsp, sarsep, savings, sep ira, simple ira, sipp, stock plan, student, thrift savings plan, tfsa, trust, ugma, utma, variable annuity
verification_status
stringstring
Indicates an Item's micro-deposit-based verification or database verification status. This field is only populated when using Auth and falling back to micro-deposit or database verification. Possible values are:
pending_automatic_verification: The Item is pending automatic verification.
pending_manual_verification: The Item is pending manual micro-deposit verification. Items remain in this state until the user successfully verifies the code.
automatically_verified: The Item has successfully been automatically verified.
manually_verified: The Item has successfully been manually verified.
verification_expired: Plaid was unable to automatically verify the deposit within 7 calendar days and will no longer attempt to validate the Item. Users may retry by submitting their information again through Link.
verification_failed: The Item failed manual micro-deposit verification because the user exhausted all 3 verification attempts. Users may retry by submitting their information again through Link.
unsent: The Item is pending micro-deposit verification, but Plaid has not yet sent the micro-deposit.
database_insights_pending: The Database Auth result is pending and will be available upon Auth request.
database_insights_fail: The Item's numbers have been verified using Plaid's data sources and have signal for being invalid and/or have no signal for being valid. Typically this indicates that the routing number is invalid, the account number does not match the account number format associated with the routing number, or the account has been reported as closed or frozen. Only returned for Auth Items created via Database Auth.
database_insights_pass: The Item's numbers have been verified using Plaid's data sources: the routing and account number match a routing and account number of an account recognized on the Plaid network, and the account is not known by Plaid to be frozen or closed. Only returned for Auth Items created via Database Auth.
database_insights_pass_with_caution: The Item's numbers have been verified using Plaid's data sources and have some signal for being valid: the routing and account number were not recognized on the Plaid network, but the routing number is valid and the account number is a potential valid account number for that routing number. Only returned for Auth Items created via Database Auth.
database_matched: (deprecated) The Item has successfully been verified using Plaid's data sources. Only returned for Auth Items created via Database Match.
null or empty string: Neither micro-deposit-based verification nor database verification are being used for the Item.

Possible values: automatically_verified, pending_automatic_verification, pending_manual_verification, unsent, manually_verified, verification_expired, verification_failed, database_matched, database_insights_pass, database_insights_pass_with_caution, database_insights_fail
verification_name
stringstring
The account holder name that was used for micro-deposit and/or database verification. Only returned for Auth Items created via micro-deposit or database verification. This name was manually-entered by the user during Link, unless it was otherwise provided via the user.legal_name request field in /link/token/create for the Link session that created the Item.
verification_insights
objectobject
Insights from performing database verification for the account. Only returned for Auth Items using Database Auth.
name_match_score
nullableintegernullable, integer
Indicates the score of the name match between the given name provided during database verification (available in the verification_name field) and matched Plaid network accounts. If defined, will be a value between 0 and 100. Will be undefined if name matching was not enabled for the database verification session or if there were no eligible Plaid network matches to compare the given name with.
network_status
objectobject
Status information about the account and routing number in the Plaid network.
has_numbers_match
booleanboolean
Indicates whether we found at least one matching account for the ACH account and routing number.
is_numbers_match_verified
booleanboolean
Indicates if at least one matching account for the ACH account and routing number is already verified.
previous_returns
objectobject
Information about known ACH returns for the account and routing number.
has_previous_administrative_return
booleanboolean
Indicates whether Plaid's data sources include a known administrative ACH return for account and routing number.
account_number_format
stringstring
Indicator of account number format validity for institution.
valid: indicates that the account number has a correct format for the institution.
invalid: indicates that the account number has an incorrect format for the institution.
unknown: indicates that there was not enough information to determine whether the format is correct for the institution.

Possible values: valid, invalid, unknown
persistent_account_id
stringstring
A unique and persistent identifier for accounts that can be used to trace multiple instances of the same account across different Items for depository accounts. This field is currently supported only for Items at institutions that use Tokenized Account Numbers (i.e., Chase and PNC, and in May 2025 US Bank). Because these accounts have a different account number each time they are linked, this field may be used instead of the account number to uniquely identify an account across multiple Items for payments use cases, helping to reduce duplicate Items or attempted fraud. In Sandbox, this field is populated for TAN-based institutions (ins_56, ins_13) as well as the OAuth Sandbox institution (ins_127287); in Production, it will only be populated for accounts at applicable institutions.
holder_category
nullablestringnullable, string
Indicates the account's categorization as either a personal or a business account. This field is currently in beta; to request access, contact your account manager.

Possible values: business, personal, unrecognized
item
objectobject
Metadata about the Item.
item_id
stringstring
The Plaid Item ID. The item_id is always unique; linking the same account at the same institution twice will result in two Items with different item_id values. Like all Plaid identifiers, the item_id is case-sensitive.
institution_id
nullablestringnullable, string
The Plaid Institution ID associated with the Item. Field is null for Items created without an institution connection, such as Items created via Same Day Micro-deposits.
institution_name
nullablestringnullable, string
The name of the institution associated with the Item. Field is null for Items created without an institution connection, such as Items created via Same Day Micro-deposits.
webhook
nullablestringnullable, string
The URL registered to receive webhooks for the Item.
auth_method
nullablestringnullable, string
The method used to populate Auth data for the Item. This field is only populated for Items that have had Auth numbers data set on at least one of its accounts, and will be null otherwise. For info about the various flows, see our Auth coverage documentation.
INSTANT_AUTH: The Item's Auth data was provided directly by the user's institution connection.
INSTANT_MATCH: The Item's Auth data was provided via the Instant Match fallback flow.
AUTOMATED_MICRODEPOSITS: The Item's Auth data was provided via the Automated Micro-deposits flow.
SAME_DAY_MICRODEPOSITS: The Item's Auth data was provided via the Same Day Micro-deposits flow.
INSTANT_MICRODEPOSITS: The Item's Auth data was provided via the Instant Micro-deposits flow.
DATABASE_MATCH: The Item's Auth data was provided via the Database Match flow.
DATABASE_INSIGHTS: The Item's Auth data was provided via the Database Insights flow.
TRANSFER_MIGRATED: The Item's Auth data was provided via /transfer/migrate_account.
INVESTMENTS_FALLBACK: The Item's Auth data for Investments Move was provided via a fallback flow.

Possible values: INSTANT_AUTH, INSTANT_MATCH, AUTOMATED_MICRODEPOSITS, SAME_DAY_MICRODEPOSITS, INSTANT_MICRODEPOSITS, DATABASE_MATCH, DATABASE_INSIGHTS, TRANSFER_MIGRATED, INVESTMENTS_FALLBACK, null
error
nullableobjectnullable, object
Errors are identified by error_code and categorized by error_type. Use these in preference to HTTP status codes to identify and handle specific errors. HTTP status codes are set and provide the broadest categorization of errors: 4xx codes are for developer- or user-related errors, and 5xx codes are for Plaid-related errors, and the status will be 2xx in non-error cases. An Item with a non-null error object will only be part of an API response when calling /item/get to view Item status. Otherwise, error fields will be null if no error has occurred; if an error has occurred, an error code will be returned instead.
error_type
stringstring
A broad categorization of the error. Safe for programmatic use.

Possible values: INVALID_REQUEST, INVALID_RESULT, INVALID_INPUT, INSTITUTION_ERROR, RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED, API_ERROR, ITEM_ERROR, ASSET_REPORT_ERROR, RECAPTCHA_ERROR, OAUTH_ERROR, PAYMENT_ERROR, BANK_TRANSFER_ERROR, INCOME_VERIFICATION_ERROR, MICRODEPOSITS_ERROR, SANDBOX_ERROR, PARTNER_ERROR, SIGNAL_ERROR, TRANSACTIONS_ERROR, TRANSACTION_ERROR, TRANSFER_ERROR, CHECK_REPORT_ERROR, CONSUMER_REPORT_ERROR
error_code
stringstring
The particular error code. Safe for programmatic use.
error_code_reason
nullablestringnullable, string
The specific reason for the error code. Currently, reasons are only supported OAuth-based item errors; null will be returned otherwise. Safe for programmatic use.
Possible values: OAUTH_INVALID_TOKEN: The user’s OAuth connection to this institution has been invalidated.
OAUTH_CONSENT_EXPIRED: The user's access consent for this OAuth connection to this institution has expired.
OAUTH_USER_REVOKED: The user’s OAuth connection to this institution is invalid because the user revoked their connection.
error_message
stringstring
A developer-friendly representation of the error code. This may change over time and is not safe for programmatic use.
display_message
nullablestringnullable, string
A user-friendly representation of the error code. null if the error is not related to user action.
This may change over time and is not safe for programmatic use.
request_id
stringstring
A unique ID identifying the request, to be used for troubleshooting purposes. This field will be omitted in errors provided by webhooks.
causes
arrayarray
In this product, a request can pertain to more than one Item. If an error is returned for such a request, causes will return an array of errors containing a breakdown of these errors on the individual Item level, if any can be identified.
causes will be provided for the error_type ASSET_REPORT_ERROR or CHECK_REPORT_ERROR. causes will also not be populated inside an error nested within a warning object.
status
nullableintegernullable, integer
The HTTP status code associated with the error. This will only be returned in the response body when the error information is provided via a webhook.
documentation_url
stringstring
The URL of a Plaid documentation page with more information about the error
suggested_action
nullablestringnullable, string
Suggested steps for resolving the error
available_products
[string][string]
A list of products available for the Item that have not yet been accessed. The contents of this array will be mutually exclusive with billed_products.

Possible values: assets, auth, balance, balance_plus, beacon, identity, identity_match, investments, investments_auth, liabilities, payment_initiation, identity_verification, transactions, credit_details, income, income_verification, standing_orders, transfer, employment, recurring_transactions, transactions_refresh, signal, statements, processor_payments, processor_identity, profile, cra_base_report, cra_income_insights, cra_partner_insights, cra_network_insights, cra_cashflow_insights, cra_monitoring, cra_lend_score, layer, pay_by_bank, protect_linked_bank
billed_products
[string][string]
A list of products that have been billed for the Item. The contents of this array will be mutually exclusive with available_products. Note - billed_products is populated in all environments but only requests in Production are billed. Also note that products that are billed on a pay-per-call basis rather than a pay-per-Item basis, such as balance, will not appear here.

Possible values: assets, auth, balance, balance_plus, beacon, identity, identity_match, investments, investments_auth, liabilities, payment_initiation, identity_verification, transactions, credit_details, income, income_verification, standing_orders, transfer, employment, recurring_transactions, transactions_refresh, signal, statements, processor_payments, processor_identity, profile, cra_base_report, cra_income_insights, cra_partner_insights, cra_network_insights, cra_cashflow_insights, cra_monitoring, cra_lend_score, layer, pay_by_bank, protect_linked_bank
products
[string][string]
A list of products added to the Item. In almost all cases, this will be the same as the billed_products field. For some products, it is possible for the product to be added to an Item but not yet billed (e.g. Assets, before /asset_report/create has been called, or Auth or Identity when added as Optional Products but before their endpoints have been called), in which case the product may appear in products but not in billed_products.

Possible values: assets, auth, balance, balance_plus, beacon, identity, identity_match, investments, investments_auth, liabilities, payment_initiation, identity_verification, transactions, credit_details, income, income_verification, standing_orders, transfer, employment, recurring_transactions, transactions_refresh, signal, statements, processor_payments, processor_identity, profile, cra_base_report, cra_income_insights, cra_partner_insights, cra_network_insights, cra_cashflow_insights, cra_monitoring, cra_lend_score, layer, pay_by_bank, protect_linked_bank
consented_products
[string][string]
A list of products that the user has consented to for the Item via Data Transparency Messaging. This will consist of all products where both of the following are true: the user has consented to the required data scopes for that product and you have Production access for that product.

Possible values: assets, auth, balance, balance_plus, beacon, identity, identity_match, investments, investments_auth, liabilities, transactions, income, income_verification, transfer, employment, recurring_transactions, signal, statements, processor_payments, processor_identity, cra_base_report, cra_income_insights, cra_lend_score, cra_partner_insights, cra_cashflow_insights, cra_monitoring, layer
consent_expiration_time
nullablestringnullable, string
The date and time at which the Item's access consent will expire, in ISO 8601 format. If the Item does not have consent expiration scheduled, this field will be null. Currently, only institutions in Europe and a small number of institutions in the US have expiring consent. For a list of US institutions that currently expire consent, see the OAuth Guide.

Format: date-time
update_type
stringstring
Indicates whether an Item requires user interaction to be updated, which can be the case for Items with some forms of two-factor authentication.
background - Item can be updated in the background
user_present_required - Item requires user interaction to be updated

Possible values: background, user_present_required
request_id
stringstring
A unique identifier for the request, which can be used for troubleshooting. This identifier, like all Plaid identifiers, is case sensitive.
1{
2  "accounts": [
3    {
4      "account_id": "BxBXxLj1m4HMXBm9WZZmCWVbPjX16EHwv99vp",
5      "balances": {
6        "available": 100,
7        "current": 110,
8        "iso_currency_code": "USD",
9        "limit": null,
10        "unofficial_currency_code": null
11      },
12      "holder_category": "personal",
13      "mask": "0000",
14      "name": "Plaid Checking",
15      "official_name": "Plaid Gold Standard 0% Interest Checking",
16      "subtype": "checking",
17      "type": "depository"
18    },
19    {
20      "account_id": "dVzbVMLjrxTnLjX4G66XUp5GLklm4oiZy88yK",
21      "balances": {
22        "available": null,
23        "current": 410,
24        "iso_currency_code": "USD",
25        "limit": 2000,
26        "unofficial_currency_code": null
27      },
28      "mask": "3333",
29      "name": "Plaid Credit Card",
30      "official_name": "Plaid Diamond 12.5% APR Interest Credit Card",
31      "subtype": "credit card",
32      "type": "credit"
33    },
34    {
35      "account_id": "Pp1Vpkl9w8sajvK6oEEKtr7vZxBnGpf7LxxLE",
36      "balances": {
37        "available": null,
38        "current": 65262,
39        "iso_currency_code": "USD",
40        "limit": null,
41        "unofficial_currency_code": null
42      },
43      "mask": "7777",
44      "name": "Plaid Student Loan",
45      "official_name": null,
46      "subtype": "student",
47      "type": "loan"
48    }
49  ],
50  "item": {
51    "available_products": [
52      "balance",
53      "identity",
54      "investments"
55    ],
56    "billed_products": [
57      "assets",
58      "auth",
59      "liabilities",
60      "transactions"
61    ],
62    "consent_expiration_time": null,
63    "error": null,
64    "institution_id": "ins_3",
65    "institution_name": "Chase",
66    "item_id": "eVBnVMp7zdTJLkRNr33Rs6zr7KNJqBFL9DrE6",
67    "update_type": "background",
68    "webhook": "https://www.genericwebhookurl.com/webhook",
69    "auth_method": "INSTANT_AUTH"
70  },
71  "request_id": "qk5Bxes3gDfv4F2"
72}